Sam Allardyce hopes defensive duo will be fit for Chelsea

Sam Allardyce believes Joey O’Brien and James Collins will be fit to face Chelsea on Saturday despite the duo suffering hamstring injuries on international duty.

O’Brien and Collins returned to West Ham early to receive treatment and both defenders will be assessed ahead of the game at Upton Park.

Razvan Rat sustained a hamstring injury playing for Romania and is also a doubt.

“We are hoping that because Joey O’Brien and James Collins pulled out [of their matches] that will help with the extent of their injuries,” Allardyce said today.

“Razvan went off after 25 minutes so his assessment is more difficult but we are hoping that Joey and James will be okay. Any injury comes at a bad time for any team and we are calculating the injury list.”

West Ham were beaten 3-1 by Norwich at Carrow Road before the international break and only goal difference is keeping them out of the relegation zone.

Allardyce said: “To take the pressure off us all we need results.

“We have not achieved that so far and we need to turn the performances into results.

“With those two [defeats] for Chelsea there is a chance to see where their weaknesses lie.

“But anything less than top form for all of our players would make life difficult for us.”

West Ham have scored only nine goals in their 11 Premier League games this season and Allardyce added: “In terms of our goals it is not that we are not creating chances but we are not converting them.

“Our chance conversion rate is among the worst.

“We will have to produce the end product because creating chances will be harder [against Chelsea].

“We played against Tottenham and scored three goals — we could have scored more goals against a lot of teams. In the striker area, they are not delivering goals in the games.”

West Ham have not won at Upton Park since the opening day of the season but did beat Chelsea at home last campaign and midfielder Mark Noble believes that they can do it again.

He said: “A lot of Chelsea’s players have been on international duty over the last few weeks, so if there is ever a good time to play them, this could be it.”